This morning our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, sent an update email to all staff at the University ahead of the launch of our new faculty structure.
In his email, Sir Christopher provides a progress update on the steps we’ve taken so far, towards realising our University’s Strategy. You can read the email in full below.
Dear Colleagues,
The progress we’ve made so far
I would like to start this update by first of all thanking everyone across all our campuses, including our staff in Malaysia and Dalian, for their dedication and contributions over the past 12 months. We have just completed our summer graduation ceremonies which were a real highlight and celebration of our students’ success, reflecting the tremendous teaching and support colleagues have given them over their time here.
In 2016 we launched our University Strategy in order to set the direction for our University and improve our global reputation as a world-leading, research-intensive institution. To achieve this we will sharpen our focus, deliver high quality in everything we do and provide an exemplary student experience.
Since then, we’ve taken some significant steps forward:
- In 2016-17 we saw a marked improvement in our entry tariff of almost a full A Level grade, in line with our Strategy. We have also seen an improvement in our student employability, and these factors are now feeding into the improvement in the league tables.
- In 2016-17 we made preparations for and secured our £300m public bond at a record low interest rate for the UK Higher Education sector. This is helping to fund the changes to our systems and campuses that will contribute to transforming the staff and student experience.
- In 2017-18, following our proposal to re-shape the University and thanks to the commitment of many colleagues, we will transition into our new five-faculty structure tomorrow. In the months and years ahead, we will feel the benefits of this change. Simply put, we’ll be better at getting things done – a more effective University and a more rewarding place to work and study.
- In spring/summer this year we received a flurry of good news, all pointing to the positive impact of our focus on quality: we rose six places in the Complete University Guide, 12 places in the Guardian University league table, regained our place in the World’s Top 100 and were awarded a Silver TEF.
- Last Friday 27 July, we received the results of the 2018 National Student Survey (NSS), a key indicator of the experience that our final year students have had with us during their undergraduate studies. I’m very pleased to say that the focus and effort that we – as a University community – have put into improving the student experience has been positively reflected in a gain of 1% in the Overall Satisfaction score to 84% (which is higher than the national average for HEIs). This improvement compared with last year, and especially our improved position against many of our competitors, is further indication that our Strategy is working. The hard work of colleagues across the University has led to improvements against last year in 20 of the 27 NSS questions. We should not be complacent though: there is still considerable scope for continued improvement in many areas.
Thank you
As we go into our new structure, I would like to thank all of you who made the change from eight to five faculties possible, through your dedication and professional support over the last few months, including the many colleagues and students who provided input on the original proposal and subsequent contributions.
Congratulations to all of you who have roles in the new Faculty Boards and in Schools and Departments. I’m delighted that we’ll be welcoming student members into these new boards from October 2018, and look forward to seeing how we can further improve on the student experience through direct student engagement as we go forward.
The next chapter
With our new, simpler organisational structure in place, we are continuing to build momentum and realise our Strategy.
We are making good progress on the implementation of our Estates and Systems frameworks. In addition to these, the University leadership team recently met to discuss a number of ideas for other strategic projects that will drive our progress over the next three years. These ranged from the creation of a new, user-centric web presence that will transform the way we present ourselves to the world, to aligning Professional Services so that we can work more effectively together across our faculties.
At their heart, all of these proposals align with our Strategy by providing an essential focus on quality and sustainability, whilst providing an improved environment for our staff and students. We will be further developing these initiatives over the summer and will provide you with more information later in September.
If you have questions or comments, please email the University Change Portfolio Office.
For all of you taking some time off over the next few weeks, I wish you an enjoyable break.
Kind regards,
Christopher Snowden
Professor Sir Christopher Snowden
President and Vice-Chancellor
